D-Plus Grade for the Chesapeake Bay 2018

Resiliency in the Face of Challenges in 2018

Disheartening but not shocking news from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s State of the Bay Report 2018: the overall score for the Chesapeake was a 33 D+


Photo Landsat/NASA

From CBF’s website:
Experts agree that the science-based Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint is our last chance to Save the Bay. Since the Blueprint's beginning in 2010, the Bay has been improving. But as this year's State of the Bay shows, progress is never a straight line.

Simply put, the Bay suffered a massive assault in 2018. Extraordinary weather flushed enormous amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous, and debris—mostly from Pennsylvania, but also from other regions—off our lands and into the Bay. As a result, the State of the Bay score fell one point to a 33.

Still, there are heartening signs that the Bay is building resiliency. Bay grasses remain intact and recent studies indicate an improving trend in underwater dead zones over the long term. But the system remains dangerously out of balance. And new challenges like climate change and a federal administration attempting to rollback fundamental environmental protections are threatening success.

Scroll down on this page to find the pollution indicator scores.

Find the full report here.

Find ways YOU can help here!